Renovating our current building includes millions of dollars of remediation and renovation costs that would be more costly than a new construction. It was also important to consider how to continue provide services to survivors during construction. Those living in our shelter have suffered trauma and victimization - living in a construction zone would create unnecessary upheaval in their lives and affect their recovery . We appreciate the historical significance and beauty of the current building, however, renovation is not feasible.

A new structure will cost approximately 12-15 million dollars and allows us to expand our services to include permanent supportive housing - a significant need in our community. Improving and expanding our youth development services is also a priority. Currently, the YWCA Summer Food Program is held offsite at the Goedde Building and First United Methodist Church. A new facility allows all services to be under the same roof and to continue our impact for another 100+ years!

With the assistance of KO Consulting, we are exploring avenues of federal and state grant streams that are currently offering funding to build facilities that support the services we provide. We also hope that local businesses and private donors will generously pledge to make this dream a reality.

This capital campaign and the subsequent construction of a new facility will take approximately 3-4 years to complete. In the meantime, we vow to be good stewards of and maintain the structure of the current facility. Our first priority is still providing quality services to those in need.

We will explore the best option for the current building over the next few years while keeping in mind what is best for Van Wert County.

Assisting survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking as well as providing quality programming to the youth of our community is our focus. Because there are several great fitness centers meeting our community's needs in Van Wert, we will not duplicate those services. A new facility is best utilized to improve current services and offer other programs that are currently lacking in Van Wert County.